Baby Madison's 1st Halloween and Christmas tree!! Ally and Tom fill Fishtown with spooky sweets!!

Stunning vistas of Meredith and Kathy touring Santorini!

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Read, reflect, remember...

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY to TOM and MEREDITH!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to US!!

Carmel by the Sea and Chicago, Tom and Hannah....but some things here don't belong!?

Samples of Jane Austen's seemingly infinite brilliance

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. –– Pride and Prejudice. I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. — Persuasion. It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do. — Sense and Sensibility. Indulge your imagination in every possible flight. — Pride and Prejudice. Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure. — Mansfield Park. Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. — Emma. Nobody minds having what is too good for them. –– Mansfield Park. We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be. –– Mansfield Park. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. –– Pride and Prejudice. The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. –– Northanger Abbey. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. — Emma. Let me know when you begin the new tea, and the new white wine. My present elegances have not yet made me indifferent to such matters. I am still a cat if I see a mouse. –– Letter to Cassandra. We are to have a tiny party here tonight. I hate tiny parties, they force one into constant exertion. –– Letter. There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person. –– Emma. Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like. — Mansfield Park. Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion. — Pride and Prejudice. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn? –– Mr Bennet, Pride and Prejudice. Without music, life would be a blank to me. — Emma. To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love. — Pride and Prejudice. There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves. — Emma. One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s. — Emma. It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others. ― Sense and Sensibility. It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble. — Emma. I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. –– Letter to Cassandra. There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature. — Northanger Abbey. If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. ― Emma. There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time. — Mansfield Park. ‍ Give him a book, and he will read all day long. — Persuasion. Angry people are not always wise. –– Pride and Prejudice. But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them forever. –– Pride and Prejudice. The distance is nothing when one has motive. –– Pride and Prejudice. Do anything rather than marry without affection. –– Pride and Prejudice. What are young men to rocks and mountains? –– Pride and Prejudice. ‍ Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush. –– Pride and Prejudice. ‍ She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet. –– Pride and Prejudice. ‍ Till this moment I never knew myself. –– Pride and Prejudice. ‍ My good opinion once lost, is lost forever. ‍–– Pride and Prejudice.

The MAGA folks won't read this, although they REALLY need to...ignoring truth, justice, decency, courtesy, morality is inviting chaos and cruelty

Folks of good conscience still exist, but this criminal is not one of them

If you don't like reading facts about Trump, stop right here. Now would be a good time to remind everyone of these Trump facts, because apparently some people still need the refresher. Please meet the President of the United States: Flew on Epstein’s plane at least seven times. Just friends, I guess. Pleaded the Fifth more than 400 times in a single deposition. Nothing says “innocent” like refusing to answer a single question about your own business. 34 felony convictions. A record most people would call disqualifying. And 91 criminal charges. Accused of sexual misconduct or assault by at least 26 women. But sure, tell me again how he’s a great guy. 6 corporate bankruptcies. The self proclaimed greatest businessman alive somehow keeps running out of money. 5 draft deferments. Funny how the toughest guy in the room never actually showed up for duty. 4 criminal indictments. Not two. Not three. Four. 2 impeachments. A club of exactly one president. 2 of his own companies convicted of criminal tax fraud. Convicted. Not accused. Convicted. 1 fake university shut down. 1 fake charity shut down. Even his charity was a grift. Paid 25 million dollars to settle the Trump University fraud lawsuit because scamming people who believed in you costs money eventually. Ordered to pay 5 million dollars in the first E Jean Carroll sexual abuse verdict, then hit with 83.3 million more in the second. A jury said it twice so nobody could pretend it was a fluke. Ordered to pay 2 million dollars for looting his own so called charity. Stealing from a charity with his own name on it. Found liable for business fraud and originally slapped with a penalty topping 450 million dollars, later thrown out on appeal while the fraud finding itself stuck to him anyway. First president in modern history to increase the deficit every single year of a full term. Fiscal responsibility, apparently, was always just a talking point. Kept the debt to GDP ratio above 100 percent for his entire first term. Presided over the largest single day point drop in Dow Jones history at the time. So much for the guy who claimed to be a genius with money. Set the record for the longest government shutdown in US history in his first term at 35 days, then couldn’t resist beating his own miserable record in his second term with a 43 day shutdown, followed by yet another shutdown just months later. Encore nobody asked for. Added roughly 2.25 trillion dollars to the national debt in his first year back in office alone, pushing the debt past 39 trillion dollars. Somebody remind me who the party of fiscal discipline is again. Pushed through the largest defense budget increase since World War Two while the debt kept climbing anyway. Purged more than 300,000 federal employees in his first year back. Efficient, if your goal is chaos. Pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 Capitol rioters on his very first day back in office, including Oath Keepers and Proud </b>Boys leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy. Law and order, except when it’s inconvenient. At least 40 of those pardoned rioters have already been rearrested, charged, or sentenced for new crimes since walking free. Shocking absolutely nobody. His family’s crypto ventures, including a meme coin and World Liberty Financial, pulled in more than 1.4 billion dollars in disclosed earnings while he sat in the Oval Office. Draining the swamp was apparently code for filling his own pockets. Sent the National Guard into American cities at a cost of nearly 500 million taxpayer dollars in 2025 alone. His own tariffs are projected to cost the average American household more than 2,500 dollars this year. You’re paying for this. Not China. You. No more foreign wars. Peace deal with Russia and Ukraine on Day One. Now sitting at one of the lowest approval ratings of his second term, stuck in the high 30s while inflation and gas prices make everyday life harder. None of this is a conspiracy theory, a rumor, or something you saw in a group chat. It is the actual, documented record, sitting in plain sight for anyone willing to look. So the next time someone tells you to relax and give him a chance, ask them how many more indictments, judgments, and shutdown records he needs to rack up before that chance runs out.